Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, was an interesting place for sure, not only because Alina made a very interesting choice for the hotel area (we accidentally landed in the red light district full of hostess bars and creepy old guys - oopsie). The hotel was nice though! Very close to the river which provided a very pretty view in the night - only the huge Carlsberg-sign was a bit weird🙃
The city itself is dirty and smelly but as always, we managed to find some pretty spots and shops with good and cheap food and even got some free fried marinated crickets to pair with our beer. As in Siem Reap, the Cambodian people were beyond lovely and we both agree that from all 4 countries in SEA, they are absolutely our favorites!
And for the old times‘ sake, we went back to the Platoon club where Alina lost her wallet 10 years ago to drink a white russian (which was the reason Alina lost her wallet) - bad sound, bad drinks, expensive beer but fun nevertheless 🤷🏻‍♀️
Also on the itinerary were the Tuol Sleng Genocide museum, followed by a visit of the infamous killing fields near Phnom Penh. For those who don‘t know: The Khmer Rouge, a communist party which ruled in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, murdered hundreds of thousands of their political opponents, and their racist emphasis on national purity resulted in the genocide of Cambodian minorities. Ultimately, the genocite lead to the death of approximately 25% of the Cambodian population at this time - a number we still struggle to comprehend. The Tuol Sleng Genocide museum is a former school which was restructured to a prison where ‚political opponents‘ were ‚interrogated‘ (meaning tortured) before being transported to the Killing Fields for their execution. To this day, new bone fragments and pieces of clothes of the executed still appear on the surface of the Killing Fields after heavy rain, even though most of its mass graves have already been emptied. It is a hard piece of Cambodian history to swallow, however, we highly recommend to make yourself familiar with the topic. Out of respect, no photos were taken at neither of the two museums.Leggi altro